Foiled NYC Terror Plot -- Another Reason to Keep Gitmo Open

Thu, 21 May 2009 16:30:09 +0000 – The four men arrested in New York for allegedly plotting terrorist acts against Jewish synagogues and military planes ought to serve as another warning to the Obama administration as to the dangers these people present to the country.

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At a time when the president foolishly wants to close the Guantanamo prison camp and has no idea where to send the detainees, and at a time when virtually the entire United States Senate has rejected funds to pay for the closing of the camp, the president should reverse himself and leave Gitmo open -- at the very least until we know where he plans to put the prisoners and how he plans to process them.

The New York arrests reveal another weakness in America. According to The Washington Post, at least one of the arrested Muslim men was converted to Islam in prison and recruited for "jihad." Extremists are active in our prisons, seeking converts mainly among young African-American men whom terrorists then attempt to radicalize for their anti-American cause.

Given the history of the U.S. court system and the "see-no-evil except when it comes to America" attitude of groups like the ACLU, the worst thing the president could do for the security of the nation is to bring the detainees into the U.S. judicial system where liberal lawyers would game the system and win the release of at least some of them.

On the same newspaper front pages that tell of the New York City arrests is the story that one in seven detainees who have been released from prison have returned to the battlefield to wage jihad. Will the president take responsibility for Americans killed by these jihadists, or will he again blame the Bush administration? -- Frankly, the blame game is becoming tiresome.